Bowlers may wear bowling shoes for a variety of reasons, such as improved sliding on a lead foot and improved traction on a rear, or push, foot. Therefore, the material of the bottom of the bowling shoes, which contacts the walking surface, may affect the ability to slide and/or grip the surface. More-over, as bowlers bowl at different bowling alleys, particularly bowlers who travel such as professional bowlers, varying finishes on the surfaces at varying bowling alleys may also affect the ability to slide and/or grip the surface. Hence, a bowler who uses the same bowling shoes may experience different sliding and/or gripping depending upon the bowling alley. To overcome these variations, a bowler may travel with numerous bowling shoes and select a particular pair of shoes depending upon the finish the bowler encounters. However, in doing so, the bowler would often have to incur increased expenses to acquire numerous bowling shoes as well as be inconvenienced with traveling and maintaining numerous shoes.
Therefore, a bowling shoe having an outsole that may be replaced with any one of a plurality of outsoles, each outsole having different frictional properties than the next outsole, may permit a user to adjust a single pair of shoes to numerous surfaces having various frictional characteristics. U.S. Pat. No. 2,640,283 to McCord, U.S. Pat. No. 3,027,661 to McCord, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,198 to Famolare appear to relate to a bowling shoe that permits a pad on the bottom of the outsole to be interchanged with any one a plurality of pads, each pad having different frictional properties.
However, such shoes with replaceable pads may introduce a new type of problem where the pad may become unintentionally loosened or dislodged from the outsole. As a result, the pad could flop around and pose a hazard to the user, sometimes causing the user to trip or fall. This problem may be exacerbated when the user drags the shoe, particularly the toes, such as a bowler often does with the rear foot during the final stride prior to releasing the bowling ball.
During the final stride, some bowlers drag the rear foot from the ball of the foot up onto the top of the toes. As a result, the shoe typically experiences a drag beginning on the bottom surface of the pad underneath the ball of the foot (see FIG. 1a), continuing to where the outsole meets the upper in front of the toes (see FIG. 1b), and ending where the upper covers the top of the toes (see FIG. 1c). In general, for removable pads that should be securely attached to the bottom of shoes until such time the pads are intended to be removed, particularly for bowlers who drag their rear foot, there may be a need for an apparatus that securely attaches a removable and interchangeable pad to a bottom of a shoe that further permits, when desired, the pad to be easily removed and interchanged.
What is desired, therefore, is a shoe having an interchangeable outsole which is securely attached to the bottom of the shoe until such time it is desired to be interchanged, whereupon such outsole may be easily removed and interchanged. What is also desired is an interchangeable outsole that may be easily and repeatedly attached in its proper location to the bottom of the shoe.